But as is the way with Cannes, it's history already; all that's left is to pick over the bones. And that will assuredly be happening in the video we'll post later this morning, when Peter, Xan and Catherine run the rule over Rust and Bone, last night's biggie. We'll also have a gallery of red carpet pictures, featuring star Marion Cotillard and ice-cold director Jacques Audiard. (I've said it before, I'll say it again: he's the person I want to be when I grow up.)

So what to look forward to today? The line-up is perhaps a tad less starry that on days one and two: the competition films are Reality, from Italian director Matteo Garrone (the man behind the coruscating Gomorrah in 2008) and Beyond the Hills, from Romanian Cristian Mungiu (who won the Palme with the equally coruscating 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days in 2007. Both have been out of action for a little while, so we'll be interested to see what they've come up with. Peter's Reality review should come through at lunchtime; Hills is screening late so we probably won't post the review till tomorrow.

However, to keep you going, Peter has filed reviews of Mystery, the new one from Lou Ye (the controversial Chinese director who got into trouble for his Tiananmen Square film Summer Palace), Mekong Hotel from former Palme-winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Paradise, from Austrian director Ulrich Seidl. We'll post them all this morning.

11.53am: While we're waiting for Peter's review of Reality, let's have a look through the trades. There's a decent crop of stories this morning.

• Harvey Weinstein has got political, picking up The Oath of Tobruk, a doco about the fall of Gaddafi by French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy. It's said to "highlight the invaluable leadership from President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton". Obama may also get a boost if Weinstein goes for Bin Laden hunt movie, Code Name Geronimo, which looks set to beat Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty into cinemas. Full story here.

• Variety report that Cate Blanchett and Mia Wasikowska have signed up for Carol, a Film 4 backed adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt. Made in Dagenham's Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley are producing. More details below.

Phyllis Nagy ("Mrs. Harris") pens the adaptation of the love story that follows the burgeoning relationship between two very different women in 1950s New York. One is a girl in her 20s working in a department store who dreams of a more fulfilling life, while the other, is a wife trapped in a loveless, moneyed marriage desperate to break free but fearful of losing her daughter in the process.

Film4, the pic financing arm of Channel 4, are co-developing and co-financing the project, which is set to lense in February 2013 in London and New York.

• Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie will reunite – vocally at least – for The Canterville Ghost, a CGI animation based on the Oscar Wilde short story. It's looking to be a Christmas film in 2014. Here's more from Screen Daily.

Set in rural, nineteenth century England, the story follows Sir Simon de Canterville's haunting of Canterville Chase. Stephen Fry will play the titular ghost with Laurie cast as his nemesis, a lowly gardener who is revealed to be Death himself.

Kim Burdon directs. Writers are Keiron Self and Giles New.

Gina Carter and Robert Chandler produce under a Melmoth Films banner alongside Fry's Sprout Pictures Film and Jerry Hibbert's new animation company D'Arblay Films. The BFI also backed the project.

It will be animated in London and Toronto, with direction, designs and storyboards from D'Arblay Films in the UK and CG animation from Arc Productions, the studio behind Shane Acker's 9 and Rocket Pictures' Gnomeo & Juliet, in Canada. The film will return to London for audio post-production.

• Screen Daily also report that Sylvain Chomet, the animation genius behind The Illusionist and Bellleville Rendezvous, is setting up a prequel to the latter film, called Swing Popa Swing.

Sylvain Chomet is re-teaming with Paris-based animation house Les Armateurs for a prequel to Belleville Rendez-vous (Les Triplettes de Belleville).

Didier Brummer's Armateurs is back in Cannes this year with Directors' Fortnight title Ernest & Celestine.

Chomet's new animation, Swing Popa Swing, will go back to the childhood of the elderly triplet singing trio at the heart of Belleville Rendez-vous.

Chomet, who made his last film The Illusionist with Pathé, has written a synopsis for the prequel and outlined a number of new characters. He is expected to deliver a script over the summer.

1.56pm: Henry Barnes has been to see The We and the I, the new film from Eternal Sunshine director Michel Gondry; it's set, of all places, aboard a New York school bus. Here's a taste:

Gondry – a 49-year-old Frenchman – makes a surprisingly successful go of following the babble and switch of young fast-talking Bronxites. Most of the cast are non-professional actors recruited from a local after-school programme. The inexperience shows, but their stories – Laidy (Lady Chen Carrasco) struggles to organise a world-changing sweet 16 party, sleazy Jonathan (Jonathan Ortiz) connects with a beautiful girl riding her bike outside the bus – are well-developed, if a little simplistic.

Then a bit more from Charlotte Higgins on the Cate Blanchett/Mia Wasikowska story mentioned in the trades earlier today – the novel it's based on is apparently a lesbian classic. Make of that what you will.

4.50pm: The Cannes sexism debate just won't go away. Not picking any women for the competition has opened a real can of worms. Now a petition is circulation, endorsed by none other than Gloria Steinem. Read up on it here.

5.40pm: The Critics Week took us by surprise when it picked British film Broken as its opener: its the directorial debut of theatre director Rufus Norris. Here's Peter Bradshaw's review: he's a bit down on it, I'm afraid.

The working day winds to its end, but Cannes is still going strong: tonight sees the premiere of Beyond the Hills, and with a bit of luck we'll get a review of that in the morning. Tomorrow sees the first screenings of Lawless, one of the Hollywood offerings: directed by John Hillcoat (The Road), with a top-notch cast including Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain and Gary Oldman.

Catherine Shoard will pick up the liveblog slack tomorrow; I'll be back on Sunday. Have a nice weekend.